Article

The presence of hygrophilous vegetation aspects related to the Scheuchzerio-Caricetea nigrae class is analyzed and reported in Sicily, on the Madonie Mountains. It is represented today by a single association which in the same mountains has had greater extension in the past. Despite the damage and severe reductions suffered in the last decades of the last century, the small Sicilian peaty stations still survive in the only locality of Scorzone locality, in the territory of Geraci Siculo (Palermo) and host phytocoenoses that are unprecedented from a phytosociological point of view. In the case of Scorzone area, it is an unprecedented association that is established and described here with the name of Sphagno auriculati-Caricetum echinatae. Its floristic composition and both biological and biogeographic structure are analyzed. Its syntaxonomic classification is also proposed within the Caricion nigrae alliance (Caricetalia nigrae), sintaxon so far also indicated in the southern Apennines, up to Calabria, on the Aspromonte. The new association has an affinity with the Sphagno inundati-Caricetum stellulatae from the extreme region of Italian Peninsula. Sphagno auriculati-Caricetum echinatae, however, differs from the continental one for the greater floristic richness. Given the precariousness of the biotope, the study takes into consideration its state of conservation and the looming dangers that the described association runs, which for the European territory marks the extreme southern limit of the Scheuchzerio-Caricetea nigrae class.